Let’s start by getting the plot of 20TH CENTURY
WOMEN out there. Dorothea (Annette Benning) is a single mother in 1979
California, a free spirit left from the sixties raising Jamie (Lucas Jade
Zumann) in a large house where she rents out rooms. Jamie has reached the age
of 15, that time in life when young boys become young men, and Dorothea isn’t
quite sure how to handle the change. To help she enlists the aid of those
living under the same roof.
Julie (Elle Fanning) is about the same age as Jamie. She
creeps into his room at night to sleep with him but never to have sex,
preferring to be his friend instead. This doesn’t stop her with sleeping with
most of the other boys she meets nor from Jamie having a huge crush on her.
Julie’s mother is a therapist who drags Julie to every group therapy session
she gives which does more damage than help in Julie’s case.
Abbie (Great Gerwig) is a photo-journalist, cervical cancer
survivor and late adolescent of the seventies, into punk rock in a big way,
colored hair and all. Like Dorothea she is a free spirit as well but more
mature than most in the house. Jamie shares a love of punk rock with her, a
theme that plays out throughout the film.
William (Billy Crudup) is a handy man living in the house,
doing an extreme restoration on the house in return for a roof over his head.
William is another holdover from the sixties who discovers himself in the arms
of most women he meets but finds no comfort there. Not recruited for the
mission of helping raise Jamie at first, the two have little in common, he does
end up helping.
With all of that set in place as the movie progresses you
begin to realize that perhaps Jamie isn’t the one who needs raising among this
group. Or perhaps all of them need to be raised. Dorothea, eager to take on
help in trying to form this young man into an adult, soon finds that she’s not
quite comfortable with the directions each may be taking in their aid. But
isn’t that part of discovering your child growing up? At the same time she
begins rediscovering herself at the same time.
So is this a good movie or a bad movie? That will all depend
on several things. Let me start by saying this movie has art film written all
over it. It is given to long patches of dialogue and narration followed by
pensive looks between characters. In reality no one talks or reacts this way.
And few families are as dysfunctional as we see here. But that’s true of nearly
every movie family ever filmed in the last few decades. All are emotional
messes attempting to find solutions. Without being depicted that way my guess
is film makers feel they would be doing little more than putting mundane
glimpses of daily life on screen which could make a boring film.
I will be honest and note that during the first 40 minutes
of this film I found myself checking the time marker about every 8 minutes to
see just how much longer I would have to endure this film. But then things
started to change. It wasn’t just that it took a while to depict who each
character was so much as it was that heavy handed art film atmosphere it took
on immediately. I for one find it tedious to watch scenes put together without
apparent rhyme or reason that go nowhere. But then something happened.
While I at first could care less about any and all of the
characters I found myself growing to like these people, to feel concern. I
wanted to carry on forward and see what happened. I wanted to know if they
would be able to move this young teenager forward or not. At the same time I
wondered if they would be able to discover that they were suffering from their own
problems with maturity as well, if they would realize that they needed to move
forward in life at the same time. Would all of them be able to survive the
unintended experiment Dorothea had laid out for them when the film began?
The movie is well made technically. The acting for the most
part is extremely subtle, especially that from Crudup and Gerwig. Benning comes
off as the oddest of characters here with the most use of those pensive stares
I commented on earlier and often replying to situations or dialogue with a
single word, “Well”.
In the end I would say that I enjoyed the film and was glad
I watched it. Some will, some won’t. If you decide to watch it give it a chance
though. Don’t start and then give up immediately. Don’t watch it while doing
laundry or making dinner or drifting in and out. Sit down and watch it start to
finish. Then reflect back on your own journey through life. After all, aren’t
we all just a tad dysfunctional at times?
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